you don't want to use cb, o numbers that the entire effect of something hits because it requires the full course of that to run through before you use those numbers in terms of the effect on the economy and the budget. >> there's one caveat that i'll talk about which is they can do that. that's hard when it comes to the alternative minimum tax. the parallel tax system for 2011 for families with kids in high tax states in new jersey, new york, maryland, california, and connecticut, but the parameters for the tax are not index for inflation so for 2012, there's 31 million families, okay, that's like one-fifth of all u.s. households that file tax returns that have -- are facing an average tax increase for $2800. that's tax year 2012, filing for tax year 2012 opening on january 16th. you can do that retroactively. the later congress does an amt, what they call an amt patch, the more it just fouls up the tax filing season. at the end of 2010, congress enacted an amt patch for 2010. in mid december, they had to delay filing for, like, basically the irs would not accept your return for mill